My Brother's Keeper
by vonniebeth
Summary: My Sister's Keeper parody featuring Next to Normal. Baby Gabe is diagnosed with cancer and Natalie is born to be his genetic life saver. Rating for later on. Please read and review, flaming won't be tolerated.


**well, as you all probably know by now, I get random story ideas, and this one hit me just now (inspired by Double Agent DD), so I have to do it. Remind me later to not write so many multi-chaps at a time (yes, this IS going to be a multi-chap. It's the fun way of writing fanfics). I kind of combined the first and second chapters cuz I didn't want to put a 1 paragraph chapter (again). Please review**

_All things happen for a reason_, was all Natalie Goodman could ever believe. Since she was young, her parents have always said that she was a tiny piece of heaven that came from the sky because they wanted kids. "Wrong," Natalie stated. She knew why she was born: it was cuz her older brother Gabe was diagnosed with cancer at a very young age.

Gabe was not quite a year old when his mother Diana noticed strange marks going across his body. "DAN!" she yelled.

"Di, what is it?" Dan asked as he ran to his sobbing wife.

"Look at Gabe. What are these marks?"

"What am I? Do I look like a doctor to you, Diana?"

"Yes…"

"Well, I don't know."

"We have to take him to a doctor immediately. What if it's something dangerous?"

"It's probably not. He's too little to get anything dangerous."

Later that day, more like afternoon-ish, he was proved wrong. "Oh doctor, what is it?" Diana said.

The doctor shook his head. "Mr. and Mrs. Goodman, I don't know how to tell you this, but I'm afraid your son has something we doctors like to call APL."

"What? Is that supposed to be Latin? Doctor…"

"One, just call me Dr. Heinz, and two, no, it is not Latin. It's just a simple acronym for a type of leukemia."

"Who's Luke?"

"Mrs. Goodman, your son has cancer."

Diana froze. "Wh-what? No, you must be kidding. Baby Gabe is too little to get cancer."

"But he did and he does. I'm sorry, Mrs. Goodman. And I'm sorry to you, Mr. Goodman."

Dan, knowing that at any second Diana would start bawling, hugged her. "He'll be okay," he whispered. "There are many types of treatment out there for cancer. Nothing can go wrong."

"Many things have gone wrong," Diana muttered.

"True, but we won't let Gabe die. He'll be fine."

Diana nodded. "Okay." Then the waterworks came. "Dan, why Gabe? Why couldn't it have been ME to get cancer? Why?"

Dan had no response to that. He was thinking the same thing about himself.

A couple of days later, the phone rang. Dan answered it, but as soon as the person on the other end started talking, he wished he didn't. "There's a bigger problem than we thought," Dr. Heinz said from the other end of the phone. "Gabe is in need of some vital things that we cannot supply for him through donor registry unless the donor is related."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Well, he is in need of bone marrow and some other things. He'll be alright for now, but he probably won't live past age 5."

"Is there anything we can do?"

"Well, not really. You and Mrs. Goodman may be related to him, but the donor must be a 100% match, which you guys are not."

"There must be something. ANYTHING!"

"Well, have you ever considered having another kid?"

"No. Gabe was an accident… a happy accident. But maybe now since Gabe is sick. But wait a minute. What if this new child isn't…"

"Well, although I cannot legally tell you to do it, you could go for in-vitro."

"In what?"

"Well, that would ensure having a 100% accurate match for him."

"Hold on. Let me ask Di." Dan put his hand over the phone. "HEY DIANA!"

"What?" Diana called.

"I think I may have a solution to save Gabe."

"REALLY? What?"

Dan told Diana what Dr. Heinz told him. "Shall we go for it?"

"I guess so. If it means saving Gabe."

"Okay." Dan went back to Dr. Heinz. "Okay, we'll go for it."

And that day was the beginning of light for Gabe, the beginning of hope for his parents, and one long run for the life of Natalie.

**PS: As you may or may not tell, Heinz is indeed after the ketchup. I'm writing on an empty stomach again. More chapters will be up soon… as soon as I can stop being lazy and reach my goal. I told a friend about this idea and she said it wasn't tasteful. I don't care though. Tell me what you think please**


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